The Lost Things
by Woulvorine
Summary: In going to war, many things abandon us. For Korra, losing this battle could mean the loss of everything she's worked so hard to keep close. This is a battle for her existence, and the existence of everything she cherishes. But when Amon does the unthinkable, who will be there to find the things she lost? Korroh. Rated for darkness. Image by alicexz on deviantart.
1. Focus

_**A/N: **__Welcome to my first chapter fic. I was going to do one from ATLA with Zutara after the war, but this became more important after I watched the season finale of LoK. (Fear not, the Zutara chapter fic will come later, but this has taken priority.)_

_Basically, my reasons for writing this is threefold:_

_One: I don't care what anyone says: the season finale sucked. The bending was cool, the idea of Korra losing her bending was cool (since she relied so heavily on it), but the very ending was one of the worst deus ex machina circumstances I have ever seen (and it brings to mind the end of the ATLA series). Oh, she lost all of her bending _except_ for airbending? How convenient! Mako _finally_ confesses his love for her, but she runs away from him because she can't have her bending? How tragic! And Aang and all her past lives show up and just _magically_ give her her bending back (even though it's already been established that Amon took it away using bloodbending, a _physical_ medium for destruction, which therefore has very little to do with the spiritual)? How wonderful! And then, only _after_ she gets her bending back does she fling herself into the arms of this wonderful firebending boy who is suddenly the most important thing in her world. This must be true love! And all this in the space of about seven minutes._

_In summation, I am frustrated. Out of character moments, a restoration of her bending _in the easiest manner possible_, and conditional love. So. I'm fixing it._

_Two: Ever since General Iroh made an appearance, I have loved him so. He's a combination of Zuko and Uncle Iroh, and since they are my two favorite characters in the _entire_ ATLA series, he's completely irrisistible. In LoK, I, of course, admire Korra and her determination to make a difference and be the best (and her stubborness). Therefore, she is another character I admire. And I tend to ship together characters I admire, if it can be done. Which means: Korroh!_

_Three: I've been neglecting my writing as of late, and it's been very patient, but lately it's gotten to be less of a small nagging senstation I could ignore, and more of like a DO THIS NOW OR THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES, POSSIBLY INVOLVING BODILY HARM sensation. I'm a writer by trade, and to shirk this thing is bad for me. Even though this is just fanfiction and not a brilliant literary art, it will at least give me practice. It's a chapter fic because I need to learn how to tell a _story_, not just a little snippet of a quaint little idea I had._

_I promise I will make the Korroh ship as realistic as possible, in terms of character. The shift from Mako to Iroh will be as smooth as I can make it, but in order to do that, some Makorra will have to be present at the beginning._

_Sorry for the rant. Other author's notes will not be like this._

_On with the story._

_(This takes place in Episode 11 – Skeletons in the Closet, directly after Korra claims she's going to take on Amon, and Mako insists he accompany her. This is that very night, the night before they are to leave. Canon makes little appearances, but after a certain point, I will cease with it completely. Enjoy.)_

ooo

**The Lost Things**

Chapter 1: Focus

One creak of the floorboard was all it took for them to be in this predicament: Mako frozen to Korra's bedroom wall, looking bewildered and slightly frightened, Korra's chest heaving, her eyes narrowed. She sat bolt upright in her bed, her arms shaking as she held them aloft in a waterbending pose, the snarl slowly slipping from her face. They stared at each other for a full three seconds before Korra came to her senses.

"Oh. Sorry, Mako." The bed shifted as she lowered her arms, the ice melting back into water, and she diverted it into a potted plant in the corner of the room. "You shouldn't sneak up on me like that. I could've…" She broke off, still breathing heavily. She could feel that her long hair was in complete disarray, cascading over her shoulders and tickling her arms. She pawed at the back of her hair nervously, trying to make it look halfway decent, averting her eyes. Mako still had not moved, and she could feel his eyes boring holes into the side of her head.

There were a few more moments of awkward silence.

Korra, feeling more drained than she had during her first Airbending lesson, decided to break it. "Did you need something?" At this point, she just wanted to go back to sleep and forget the nightmare she'd been having…

"I… I just wanted to see how you were holding up," he finally said, blinking and taking slow steps toward her, coming to a stop next to the edge of her bed, but he did not sit down, for which she was grateful. She couldn't afford to think about the two of _them_ while perhaps the greatest battle of her life was just over the horizen. _Gotta stay focused._

"I'm fine," she said, turning her head away from him. She knew that wouldn't do much to convince him she was just fine, thank you, but facing him would definitely give her away.

The silence reappeared, lurking in the shadows.

She heard fabric shift, and could feel the heat from him as he leaned toward her. Then, the heat was gone as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving her a bit colder than before. She gripped her elbows.

"Okay," he said, and she heard him move away. Her eyes remained fixed on the pattern of her quilt. The sound of a squeaky doorknob turning reached her ears, and she exhaled quietly in relief. She needed to be alone for awhile.

But the door did not open. She looked up to find Mako staring at her again, his hand on the doorknob. "We'll get him, Korra."

"I know that," she said, surprised. "I'm just—"

"Worried," he finished for her, his eyes softening, one side of his mouth tugging upward in a wry reflection of that stupid little crooked smile of his. "It's my choice, Korra. I'm coming with you."

He smiled for real, now, still soft, but genuine, and her heart picked up in tempo again. "Goodnight, Korra."

"Night," she replied softly as the door closed behind him. Sighing, she flopped back onto her bed. _No distractions_, she thought, but as she curled on her side and closed her eyes, the echo of his smile danced between her dreams.

ooo

Korra was relieved to have finally gotten past the goodbyes. It was much simpler to think about what moves she would use to take down Amon than to think about how she may not see Tenzin, Pema, her parents, Naga, and the rest again. It was easier to focus on the blood pounding in her legs as she and Mako sprinted silently through the huge drains under Republic City than to think about the way Bolin had looked upset, Asami hurt, and General Iroh concerned.

They stopped at the entrance to the drain, and looked out over the bay. She could hear Mako's heavy breathing behind her, and she took a step forward to put more space between them before turning around. Taking a deep breath, she met his eyes, and building all the courage she had, said, "You should go back."

The hurt that flashed across his sweaty face was unmistakeable, and it cut her. But she stood straight, and did not waver. His safety, she decided at that moment, was more important than his feelings. _Go back. Go back, please, go back._

But after a moment, the hurt melted away, and that soft look was back, the one that transferred its softness to her knees, which wobbled uncontrollably. He took a large step forward, so their chests were almost touching, and she inhaled sharply as he carefully took her right hand and brought it to his face. Her arm tingled all the way to her shoulder, the sensation snaking up her neck to the top of her head, and back down to the very tips of her toes. His dark gold eyes gleamed in the half-light, and he didn't even have to say it for her to realize why he had come all this way, why he had decided to leave his brother, leave Asami, leave it all behind to be by her side.

He leaned in, and Korra could count his eyelashes. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, and his breath ghosted over her face.

She trembled as his other hand came to rest on the small of her back. "I know," she murmered, and they met and his lips were much rougher than she'd thought and his shoulders on her arms gave off more heat than she'd anticipated and it was so much more than anything she could have imagined, the little details making it so much better because this was _real_, the way his long fingers curled into the fabric at her hip, the way he smelled like sweat and cinnamon and ash, the sound of his harsh breathing in her ear as he moved his way across her cheekbones and to her temple and up into her hair, crushing her to his chest. "I know," she repeated, laughed really, because her heart would burst from her chest, she was sure of it, it swelled and hurt and made her giddy from love and happiness and fear. Because that's all that she could say.

ooo

_**A/N 2: **__I'm aware there's no Korroh going on yet. It's just that General Iroh is but a blip on Korra's radar screen at the moment. He'll become much more important later. For those of you shipping Makorra: like I said, I like that ship, too, but it's going to sail away fairly soon, so brace yourselves._

_I also realize that there's a lot less "storytelling" right now. It's going to have to change eventually, because the plot is just as important as thinking on what the characters are feeling. I'm going to work on that. (I'm terrible at action-y plot stuff, so bear with me.)_

_Also also, sorry this chapter is so short. I'll try to make others longer in the future. Or, at the very least, not make you wait long for the next chapter to go up._

_Any reviews will be read, deeply appreciated, and properly weighed. You may have a say in which direction this story goes, so please review. Any type of feedback makes me make funny, shrill, a-mouse-is-suffocating noises._


	2. Reason

_**A/N:**__ This part involves canon, but I made a few adjustments. So this is basically a combination of what was shown, and I threw in bits of what I _wanted_ to be shown. (I think my version does a better job of showing character interactions; the series seemed very rushed to me.) And, of course, near the end, there are some major deviations from canon. You'll know when you get there. (If I don't mention a particular scene before moving on to a following scene, then the scene I skipped still happened; it just remained intact.)_

_I tried to make the beginning a bit more lighthearted than the end of Chapter 1. I hope I succeeded. We can't make it ALL about angst, can we?_

_(I am, of course, not serious. We certainly can.)_

**The Lost Things**

Chapter 2: Reason

Water was really quite lovely, Korra thought. It surrounded them, protecting them in their cocoon as they walked the floor of the bay toward Air Temple Island. What little light filtered from the surface danced across the walls of their little air bubble, and Korra felt giddiness clench in her chest. The fear was still there, of course, pulsing through her veins, but her happiness stamped it down, if only for a little while. She tried not to tremble as she felt Mako's hand on the small of her back, comforting and distracting all at once. She looked back at him over her shoulder, and caught his grin. She swallowed. _Not now, Korra_, she berated herself. But she couldn't stop the answering smile from consuming her face.

ooo

The trip was more difficult than she had anticipated. Not only was her mind wandering off to the pleasant memory of mere minutes ago, but their original "plan," or lack thereof, was proving tricky. It turned out the problem didn't lie in _getting_ to Air Temple Island. Korra's waterbending made it easy enough to get from one shore to the other without being spotted. Rather, the problem seemed to lie in…well, lying.

"What're you two doing here?"

Korra and Mako, both wearing the masked uniforms of the Equalists, swiveled toward the voice before freezing. There, staring at them with an expression that seemed to encompass both suspicion and disapproval, stood Amon's second-in-command, his body turned slightly away, as though prepared to sink into a defensive stance.

Mako spoke before she could think of something to say. "Uh, we were just transferred."

Korra tensed. _I love him, but seriously: who taught him how to lie?_

She had to restrain herself from becoming giddy at that. It wouldn't do to start daydreaming when one false move could mean ending up on the business end of this man's electrified nightsticks. She snapped her attention back to the conversation at hand…which didn't seem to be going very smoothly.

"Well, you're getting transferred again. Amon wants extra security at the arena today."

Korra knew Mako would open his mouth before she heard his voice, and she winced. _Shutupshutupshutupshutup._

"The arena. For what?"

She fought the impulse to slap her palm against her forehead.

"The rally." His brow furrowed, and Korra watched his eyes run over them again. "You should've been briefed about this."

Korra eyed his lightning sticks nervously. Without her gaze leaving his weapons, she bowed. "We'll be there, sir."

She felt Mako bow with her, and thanked whatever spirits could hear her that he was following her lead.

Seeming satisfied, the lieutenant turned on his heel and walked away.

Korra did not punch Mako in the arm, but nudged him. "I know another way in," she murmured, and the two of them sidled from sight.

ooo

It took less than two minutes to find the secret entrance. On silent feet, she led Mako around two stone corners of the Temple and up a ravine before diving behind some bushes. He followed, and she was grateful he did not ask where she was leading him. It was so much easier just to show him.

She knelt, and, with deft fingers, found the seam to a piece of wood paneling that perfectly matched the stone wall surrounding it. She lifted from the bottom, and the door swung up and open.

Korra, smirking, looked up to find Mako's mask tilted slightly. His stance gave her the impression that he was gaping. He lifted a lone finger and pointed. "How did you—?"

"Sometimes," she said, smiling though he couldn't see it, "meditation gets _really_ boring."

Mako straightened. "Meditation isn't _boring_," he said, crossing his arms. "It's an ancient and noble practice, with a long and glorious—"

Korra cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Right, right," she said, gesturing to the passage. "Less talking, more thwarting."

He huffed slightly and moved forward, muttering about impatient Avatars, but Korra knew him well enough to know he was holding back a smile. She grinned herself, and followed him into the blackness.

ooo

Korra and Mako sprinted through corridor after corridor, Korra's ears still ringing and mind buzzing with everything that had been confessed.

_Defeat him. Put an end to this sad story._

Tarlokk's words haunted Korra like a vengeful spirit, a malevolent wisp that hovered over her when she stopped for breath, and followed her when they resumed running. The tone of his voice and the look on his face floated before her eyes, and she could not banish it. His anger and bitterness and betrayal was incredibly real to her then, tangible, and that alone made his words seem darker than before. _Did he mean…?_

Korra hadn't thought of the _other_ way Amon could be stopped, could be punished, until those words had fallen from Tarlokk's lips. _No_, she thought, her hands shaking as she crept along the wall, hearing the roar of an Equalist crowd just on the other side. _He doesn't deserve that._ She was the Avatar, a keeper of peace. A death would not only stain her public image, but her hands. To do something so extreme and horrible was unthinkable.

_A thorough asskicking should do it_, she thought, and was relieved to finally be sounding like herself again. She was jerked out of her thoughts by Mako's hand on hers. They had come to a stop directly outside of the doors leading to the balcony that overlooked the arena.

His other hand found hers, and his grip made her smile and tremble. "Hey," he said, finding the edge of his mask and pulling it up, revealing his eyes, rimmed with concern. "Are you ready?"

And as her fingers were heated through the fabric of both of their hands, as she stared into the face of the one who had come all this way with her, she realized that she was. She lifted her mask, to let him see her, and she nodded. He gave her a small, sad smile then, and it became too much. She leaned forward, and kissed him.

What their first kiss was, this was not. The tingling she had experienced during their first had transformed into burning, a fire that crept from her chest to her stomach, because this may be a final kiss, before one of them lost everything, before they would both be changed for good. This kiss was a heated whisper before discovery, a searing look before destruction, and it was terrible and wonderful and made her hurt.

They broke apart, panting slightly, and Mako pecked her one last time, ever so sweetly, chastely, before releasing her hands, yanking his mask back on. With one final look at her, he turned and silently pushed open the double doors to the balcony.

Korra, slipping her mask back in place, took a long, deep breath, and strode forward.

ooo

Korra didn't think her heart had ever beaten so quickly in her life.

Amon's footsteps echoed just beyond their hiding place. Korra wanted desperately to peek beneath the green tablecloth, but she didn't want to risk Amon hearing her movement. She wondered where Mako was, if he was even breathing, he was so silent.

Suddenly, Amon's footsteps ceased. Korra felt a bead of sweat run down her temple, and she stopped mid-inhale.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, she heard footsteps again, and relaxed slightly. But something was bothering her. What—

And then it occurred to her. Amon was a _bloodbender_, the most powerful one the world had ever seen. Which meant—

_He can sense blood._

Her terrible revelation came half a second before she found herself dragged bodily out from under the table, a sensation she had only felt once before thrumming through her. She could not control her own movements.

Her joints cracked and her muscles moaned as her body contorted in ways they were never meant to. She groaned and struggled, but continued to rise until she was hovering off the ground, Amon getting closer, closer—

A sudden rush of heat and light filled the storage room. "Let her go!"

_Mako…_

But Amon was ready. He dodged Mako's furious attack, and reached out his arm. Mako was lifted off the ground, and Korra could hear his bones rubbing together. Rage coursed through her, and she fought harder against her confinement.

_**Monster**__…_

She felt her body convulse, and she was thrown to the ground, pain shooting its way up her arm and hip where it made contact with the cold stone floor.

And as suddenly as she was thrown down, she was lifted up, till her knees rested on the ground, and her face turned toward the ceiling, toward Amon's masked face. She felt a strong, controlling hand gripping the back of her neck. "No!"

"Korra!" Mako's yell was lost to her as she watched, helpless, as Amon's hand descended, time slowing, until his thumb met the spot between her eyes. His hands were cool, dry, and unhesitating. An unearthly fear filled her as she looked into his shaded eyes, his motionless mask.

She closed her eyes, because this couldn't, _should not_ be real, but it was, this moment was happening, and she had never felt so powerless in her life. She felt vessels in her blood constrict, close off, and it was over. Done. Gone.

Korra collapsed, her body rolling forward to meet the ground that she could no longer sense, could no longer feel. _I can't feel anything._

Before, the elements were on the edge of her senses: present, and available, if only she called to them. But now, it was like they had disappeared. No earth, no fire, no water. Nothing.

"I told you I would destroy you."

ooo

Korra felt herself being jostled, and she opened her eyes to Mako's terrified face, bobbing in and out of view. She was confused for a moment, before her awareness spread to Mako's warm arms beneath her back and under her knees. He was running.

"Mako…" she said, feeling shame and weakness creeping up her limbs. "My bending…"

"Everything will be all right," he panted, his brow furrowed, the words coming out louder than he probably meant them to. "We just need to get out of here."

Mako stopped suddenly, too suddenly, and Korra felt herself fly through the air, her momentum carrying her farther down the corridor before she was slammed into the ground once again. Her breath left her, a combination of the fall and the sight she was greeted with upon looking up.

Mako was on his knees, unable to move, in the exact stance Korra had been forced into when her bending was taken. Behind him stood Amon, but his thumb was not centered on Mako's forehead; instead, his entire hand encircled Mako's throat, not quite touching, but bending.

"I'm impressed, Avatar, with this firebender you chose to accompany you," he said, his deep, lilting voice making her blood freeze in her veins. "No one has ever managed to break my hold."

He flexed his hand in demonstration, and Mako's chin rose higher, in obvious agony.

Korra had heard the term "seeing red," but until that moment, she had not known it was so literal. Scarlet flooded her vision, and she struggled against Amon's hold on her.

_Hang on, Mako, hang on, I'm coming._

But she was not moving.

"I swore that I would destroy you," Amon went on, seemingly oblivious to her continued resistance and murderous fury. "So I took your bending." He titled his head, calmly scrutinizing her. "But there's still some defiance, a measure of will that I have not yet stomped out of you."

His head straightened, and his voice became lower, quieter. "It is time we were equal, Avatar."

And with one flick of his wrist, Mako's head snapped to the side. And he fell, with an ethereal grace, to the floor, and did not move, his eyes wide and unseeing. And that was when the screaming started.

ooo

_**A/N 2:**__ I bled for this, you guys. Actual bleeding would have been easier._

_The chapters and sections will be a lot smoother from here on out. I've had to tiptoe around canon for these first two chapters, but no longer. So get ready for some original story._

_Trust me: I wanted _so badly _to narrate Iroh's badassness with the planes. But his badassery will just have to come into play later. It would have been boring for you to read the transcription of his awesome moves when you could just watch the finale. Especially since I'm so bad at action sequences._


End file.
